The Weimar Republic (German: Weimarer Republik) was common name for a federal parliamentary democratic republican government which existed on the northern part of Central Europe and consisting most of north German states such as Prussia and several south German states such as Bavaria, that replaced the German Empire, an imperial constitutional government, following Germany's defeat on the World War I, between 1919 and 1933 until being replaced by the totalitarian regime of the Third Reich. "Weimar" is the name of city in Prussia where the republican constitution was promulgated.

History

When the defeat of German Empire was inevitable at the final stage of World War I, the country saw an increasing opposition against the war, especially from the German Left that demanded an end to the war. The wave of revolutions swept throughout Germany between 1918 and 1919 where the Social Democrats took over the power in every individual cities.

On November 9, 1918, the Republic establishment was proclaimed by member of the Social Democratic Party, Philipp Scheidemann, at the Reichstag building in Berlin as the anticipation for more left-leaned republican proclamation by leader of the Spartacist League, Karl Liebknecht, that followed two hours later. Despite being disagree with Scheidemann's proclamation, Friedrich Ebert, the leader of the SDP, finally accepted his appointment as the first Reich President of Germany with Scheidemann as new Chancellor.

Proclamation of the Republic

An armistice was signed by Germany and the Allies on November 11, 1918 and officially ended the World War I. Provisional republican government introduced a variety of social reforms and universal suffrage for all types of elections in Germany. Newly-elected German National Assembly met in the city of Weimar in 1919 and drafted the Weimar Constitution that established Germany as a federal, parliamentary democratic republic.

The Treaty of Versailles that signed in Paris on June 28, 1919 resulted to mass reduction of German military and loss of some of former territories of the German Empire, much to dismay from German ultranationalists, monarchists and conservatives.